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Story:Berserkergang
One war is over. What now? Direct sequel to Specific Impulse, so read that before for best comprehension. If you haven't read Delta V, read that before Specific Impulse. __TOC__ Prologue The Black Cube headed back round towards the planet Aiston, still holding its precious cargo within. Despite its closeness to Cedris, the temperature inside remained only warm, and the Zeth inside stirred. Rena opened her eyes and saw darkness. She felt the more gentle acceleration gravity of this craft and tried to stand up, careful not to push too hard and cause her to fall again. The blackness ensconced her, pressing and questioning, as she groped for a wall. She touched a surface- smooth to the touch, like silk, that felt comfortably warm. Reaching out with both hands, she moved along this wall for what could have been one minute or twenty, until she reached a corner. She then sat down and contemplated events. Irnos was dead. The CPR was destroyed. Xelass was alone on Aiston. A light turned on. It seemed blinding when contrasted with the darkness of a moment before, and Rena shielded her eyes. After a few seconds, she could look, and saw a blue lantern hanging from the centre of the room, casting illumination throughout. The room itself was a cube, as long and tall as it was wide. The walls were solid and smooth, with no features other than the lantern on the ceiling. There was plenty of space within. There was a sound like clockwork working away, and something changed on the far wall. A square of the black material was replaced by a square of white which glowed slightly- a monitor. Nothing was visible upon it at present. "Hello?" Rena spoke to it. "Hello. Hello. Hello." The echo was not hers- it sounded wrong. It brought forth thoughts of a saw going through wood, of the buzzing of insect wings, and of a door squeaking as it opened. It seemed to savour the words, rolling them over within its electronic mouth. "Can you understand me?" "Can you understand me?" It answered. This time, its voice was less firm and more dispersed, less certain. Upon the screen came an image of the stars. Rena didn't recognise them, but she understood- the voice was trying to learn Xelet from her. She pointed at it. "Stars." "Stars." More decisive again. The image zoomed in on one. "Star." "Star!" It exclaimed. The image now became a number of planets she didn't recognise, of all shapes and types. "Planets." She tapped one. "Planet." They went on for a few hours, the voice becoming more and more confident and slowly working out the language. It asked her for the names of all sorts of things, a few of which she didn't recognise. It seemed to get the hint after she shrugged a few times. And then it showed videos of actions, to get her to describe them. It was trying to learn verbs, adjectives, syntax. She obliged, and it learned fast. Somehow, she managed to communicate across to it all the various cases and declensions. She wrote out the Xelet alphabet and taught it the various sounds and the sounds of combinations. The images stopped, and the screen disappeared again. There was silence once more. Then one of the walls became transparent, and she was looking down at Aiston. She saw the dust-choked atmosphere and the fires across the land that had been the CPR, the land obscured by brown, grey and bright orange. She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth. "Genocide." The voice sounded bemused. "Genocide." It repeated. Chapter One In a palace located in the Republic's capital, Tanma, the Minister of War was hosting a party. A great table had been laid out, covered with rare and exotic foods and beverages, with entertainment all around and the Zeth himself sitting at the head. They were celebrating a victory without regret. They had won their war, and that was all that mattered to them. They laughed and talked, ate and watched, without a thought for the dead or the doomed. Was Xelass safe? They thought so. Alone, without challengers, on its planet, free to pursue its loftiest aims and to switch from worrying about war to worrying about impressing the public and getting re-elected. It seems remarkable now. ---- Sinking into the atmosphere, the Black Cube rotated slowly in the thin air. It wasn't going fast enough to heat up significantly as it pushed gently against gravity with its bottom thruster, slowing its descent. "There." Rena pointed at the map- specifically, at a small island hanging on to the end of Xelass. "That's where I need to go." "Trajectory set." Swooping down through the clouds, it left a vapour trail, a long and fluffy line of white that hung in the air. It continued to slow, finally pausing a few miles above the island. It span slowly in the air, as if trying to make a decision. "Specify location." Rena tapped the map again. "There. By the sea." It began to descend once more, and the ground seemed to grow beneath them. Details and colours became visible- cars, houses, trees, herds of gelln. Everything was so small. She recognised the street plan of her home town, and the road that led out from it towards her family's farm. It had been a long time. Gently, the Black Cube continued its controlled descent. Zeth were visible now, little stick figures, like some kind of microbe crawling around in the streets and around their houses. Some turned their heads to stare at the strange object in the sky. It landed softly outside the barn. One side of the Cube opened up and daylight streamed in- the light of a warm afternoon, tender but firm upon her hide. She stepped out into Cedris' rays and smiled, squinting up at the blue sky, the white sun, and the jagged clouds that drifted about so carefree up above. The Cube closed itself now, and took off again. Its jets scorched the ground slightly, leaving a small circle of black, and making a gentle crackling sound. Rising up into the air, it soon vanished from sight. Marvelling at her own continued existence, Rena sat in the golden grass and continued to watch the sky. Supporting herself with both arms, she leant her head back and allowed the warmth to shine over her face. It seemed to have been years since she had done that. So much had happened. But now she was home. A small, old Zeth stepped out from the barn, wearing a straw hat. She did a double-take before rushing over to Rena, helping her up and then embracing her tight. "Oh, Rena. You're home." Chapter Two "Five four two one zero. Receiving you loud and clear. What's your status, over?" Unshun looked out the of the window of the jet he piloted. The clouds swept past frenziedly, and the brown earth below resembled a map more than reality. "Everything's looking good, over. Nothing unusual detected." "Very good, delta four. Maintain the patrol path, over." "Wilco. Delta four ou- wait a moment." His HUD showed a sudden approach from behind. "We have an unexpected aircraft in the vicinity, control. Travelling on intercept trajectory. Any aircraft supposed to be here, control?" "That's a negative, delta four. What's its signature, over?" "Computer doesn't recognise it. Emission signatures are far too high and surface shows anomalous reflectivity. No IFF, over." "Stealthed craft, over?" "We have it in visual, control. Doesn't look like a plane, over." "What does it look like, over?" "Cubic, control. Like a black cube, over." "Still on intercept trajectory, over?" "Affirmative, control." "Is it responding to requests for identification, over?" "That's a negative, control. It seems to be accelerating. Velocity two thousand metres per second and rising, over." "We're sending out a squadron of FT-10s to you, delta four. What's the proximity, over?" "..." "Delta four, what is the object's proximity, over?" "..." "Respond, delta four! What is the object's proximity?" A line went flat and several numbers dropped to zero. The officer at Control typed in a number to the comms. "This is an emergency message for the Minister. Please redirect." ---- Rena opened the door and stepped into her room for the first time in many years. She marvelled at how familiar it all was. Everything was exactly how she had left it. The way the beams came through the window to create little broken rectangles of light upon the floor, the wardrobe door always slightly ajar, and the quiet creak of the floorboards as she stepped onto them. Sitting down upon her bed and feeling it bounce underneath her, she sighed and looked out through the glass, at the fields of green and gold, at orchards and vineyards, and at fields of animals that chewed upon the neatly cropped grass beneath them. Only one road led to the village, and it was almost always empty. A dirt track led to the family's krofish farms at the sea, where her dad was, right now. He was hurrying to finish early after having heard of her return. The krofish farms had their produce shipped out, so the sea around there remained quite busy. Rena decided to head down there tomorrow and remind herself of the feeling and smell of the great sea. It all looked so big from down here. She remembered only days ago when she had been able to block out the entirety of Aiston- every one of those billions of Zeth, almost all that their civilisation had ever made and the place where they had begun. Proximity tricked the brain into assuming importance. But this was such a small, fragile planet. The destruction of the CPR had shown that- if the ? had been able to use up all its fuel, Xelass would be a dead wasteland too. The need for civilisation to grow was more urgent than ever. She switched the TV on. "Authorities report that the loss of six fighters over the former CPR is no cause for alarm, and was due to a navigational error. They claim to be working now to recover the pilots. Let's hear what our warfare correspondent, Iniyan Gassel, has to say. So, Iniyan, what do you make of this 'accident'?" The correspondent was quite short and had a rather pained expression on his face. There was a short delay as he listened to his earpiece, and then spoke. "Well, Paira, the possibility of a navigational error is certainly there, but the jets in use should carry enough fuel for a trip far further than their patrol paths, so it's likely the XAF is holding something back. I was just talking to a man who believes that it was due to continued CPR resistance- another option is-" The image went as she turned the device off. Lying back on the bed, she breathed deeply a few times and stared at the ceiling. A duskbug skittered across, long lines of silk hanging from its thorax, the thread glinting as it entered Cedris' beams. She considered everyone and everything she had lost and curled up slightly tighter. Chapter Three The back door of the van burst open, and the specops team from within rushed out, focussed and purposeful. They took up positions around the plant's grey door, weapons held tight and body armour comfortably tied on. Their sergeant stood at the porch and drew his breaching MM13 shotgun. Concrete and steel were the defining materials of this building. Massive, bland, and ugly, it sat like an upturned boat in a sea of asphalt, accompanied by two enormous piles of raw materials and the furnace itself, which resembled nothing so more as an enormous bottle sticking from the land, tubes and pipes tracing down its walls. The main pipeline connected the reactor to the plant and that into the CO2 dump under the ground, and was at least eight yards in diameter. The building they were about to enter was the plant which used the steam produced by the reactor to generate electricity. Its generators had been tapped and its connection to the rest of the industrial grid had been severed. At least fifty employees were missing, and there were reports of strange vehicles moving around the area. The XA had wasted no time sending a special ops team- the police had no comparable units- to discover exactly what was going on and hopefully to recover the site. He fired twice into the lock and it gave, the door swinging inwards with a high-pitched squeak. The team filed in one by one, taking up positions with their carbines ready. Each turned their gun's torch on to cast long cones of light into the darkness. As the circles of illuminated concrete swept around, they made out a number of the machines within. Generators six times as tall as a Zeth, wrapped in stairs; tangled pipes and tubes; ranks of consoles and a number of discarded forklifts. Nothing moved other than the beams. They moved deeper into the structure, remaining wary and alert. Suddenly, someone threw up. The sergeant moved over and clasped the sick Zeth's shoulder. "What's wrong?" "I dunno, man, I just... ah fuck, my head..." "Get yourself back outside. Stay in the van till we get back." "I don't think I can, man." He slumped to his knees and threw up again, barely able to hold his head from the ground. "Shit, there's blood. Kaenun! Get over here!" The squad's medic hurried over. "What d'ya think?" He looked the faint Zeth over, and then turned confusedly to the sergeant. "Looks like acute radiation syndrome. But then we would all be showing the signs, not just him." "Get him back to the van, then." "Sir, you know that-" He whispered the next bit- "he's absorbed more than a lethal dose, if it is radiation." "Just get him back there." "Yes, sir." He picked him up and carried him back away. Another man began to vomit. "Shit, sir, I don't feel so good..." The sergeant tried to speak, but his head was swimming and everything had gone blurry. He felt something rise in his throat, and tried to fight it back down but couldn't. He caught a final glimpse of a small black cube, about the size of a melon, rotating slowly up above them. ---- "You heard about the shutdown of five of Tethtech's factories, right? What were they thinking?" Rena took another mouthful as her dad spoke. "That's several thousand workers just thrown aside. Why? Unemployment's high enough as it is. We need factories to open, not close. And with trust in Tethtech down, the other companies will raise the prices of their products, and everything will worsen." "Did they give a reason?" Her mother asked. "Not that I heard. It's ridiculous. It's not as if those factories weren't profitable." "They were all in Dessiv county, so perhaps they weren't getting enough workers." "Dessiv's close enough to Uthur and Instun. People were not in short supply. It just doesn't make sense, you know?" "Hm." Her dad turned to Rena. "But look at us, ignoring you when you've only just got back. Actually, I think we should take the opportunity to host a..." He continued, but Rena wasn't really listening. Her mind was somewhere else altogether. Chapter Four "Open fire!" Came the yell. The soldiers, guns braced against their shoulders or mounted on the sandbags, released a devastating barrage of full metal jacket bullets, which smacked into the Cubes they faced. Each bullet ricocheted off their black surfaces, leaving only a scratch and knocking the floating Cube slightly off balance. Grey, splash-like markings were the only result of their fire. In response, the Cubes struck out with their ion beams. Some Zeth fell instantly comatose, their nervous systems destroyed. Others began to vomit, or collapse, having absorbed a lethal dose and very soon to die. The line of Zeth that had just been firing was falling apart as each member was struck down by invisible beams of high-velocity particles. TheV20 APCs drove up, and their HMG3s began to fire with a clattering sound. The ion beams of the Cubes could not effectively penetrate the steel hulls, but the men who protruded to fire the weapons were soon dead. A single Cube had been brought down by the fire, a direct hit from a round that had somehow penetrated its casing. The remains were grabbed by two of its companions, who quickly flew away. Another type of Cube moved up, slightly larger. They settled upon the ground and their front sides opened to reveal an interior lens, which then focussed the laser they fired onto the APCs. The sudden transfer of energy to the surface of the armour blew it open, and then wrecked the vehicle's innards, with the explosion pulverising the lungs of those onboard. The squeaking of tank tracks warned the Cubes of the approach of a column of VT37s. The 70-tonne hulks, armoured more than two feet thick, stopped several hundred metres away to bring their cannons to bear on the Cubes. HEAT rounds would surely slice straight through the hovering forms. In response, the Cubes began to move together. Swirling around each other, connecting and locking into place, from smaller subunits a larger entity was formed, a metre on each side. It accelerated up into the air as the cannons fired and shells shot past, exploding against the ground far beyond. As the turrets frantically turned on their bearings, shutters opened across the Cube's forward face and nine lasers fired, focussing on a single tank. Under their fire, it blew apart as jagged metal shards. The turrets were still traversing as the lasers aimed at the next tank, and then the next, ending them with blasts of flame. The last finally pointed the barrel of its cannon at the Cube and fired. The lasers met the shell inside the gun and they exploded together. The top half of the tank blew off, leaving the interior vulnerable to the fire of lasers that came afterwards. With the armoured column reduced to smoking wrecks, the Cubes unlocked from each other and flew on. ---- It was the first day of the new week. The debris of last night's party still hung around the house, unattended to by the sleeping inhabitants. Clearing away could wait a few hours longer. Rena was awake, though. She lay still and silent in the bed, watching the ceiling, blinking every few seconds. Nothing was happening, though the darkness outside was slowly giving way to light. The dawn was a warm yellow creeping across the sky, lighting up the clouds that had lasted the night. Water on the horizon glittered slightly. The sound of a vehicle approaching the house was one that she had grown used to. The gravel driveway made it distinctive; sort of like a mixture of scraping and sliding. However, the sound of doors being thrown open and shouted commands were new. She slid out from under the blanket and got dressed. A quick look through the window was enlightening- the van was Special Civilian Operations. Her jaw clenched and she knew exactly who they had come from, who had sent them, and how they had found her. The various options were considered. She had no weapon to defend herself with, and even if she had had one, a squad carrying MR23 carbines and equipped with full body armour would be unthreatened by a pistol. Negotiation was impossible; they had their orders. So it was escape. She opened the blinds and then the window itself. It could be raised about two feet from its natural position, which was just about enough to squeeze through. The sounds of boots on the stairs reminded her of the urgency of the situation. Forcing herself through, she grabbed hold of the pane from the other side and lowered herself down to stand precariously on the protruding awning that covered the porch. It gave slightly under her feet. Looking back up at the window, she heard a hiss from inside. Gas? Probably. It took a while to work, so while they waited, she could make her escape. Perhaps two minutes, or maybe slightly less. Better safe than sorry- she should start now. The van was around the corner of the house. If the driver was still in it, he would probably be watching the exits. She wouldn't be able to use any of the obvious escapes, which meant taking the forested way. This whole thing was very inconvenient. So she took off down that route, running but trying to stay reasonably quiet. From here she could get to the clearing, and then the village, and then... where? Where was there to go? By the time she saw the Zeth blocking the road, it was too late. She stopped and turned to run the other way, but two more Zeth stepped out from the trees and covered that way too. The sides? No, she was too exposed- going either way would end in getting shot- A Zeth dressed rather formally came out from behind the soldiers ahead, taking off his gloves and looking down with a reasonable expression upon his face. Once his hands were bare, he turned his head to look at her, and smiled as if he were apologising. "Please don't take this the wrong way. We aren't here to kill you- on the contrary, we need your help." Chapter Five Category:Articles by User:Holbenilord